diff --git a/platform/hermes/config.yaml b/platform/hermes/config.yaml
index ad3c703..67ba6e4 100644
--- a/platform/hermes/config.yaml
+++ b/platform/hermes/config.yaml
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ agent:
   max_turns: 64
   # Ordinary turns run without hidden reasoning. Users can enable it explicitly
   # per session with /reasoning medium or /reasoning high when a task needs it.
-  reasoning_effort: "none"
+  reasoning_effort: false
   gateway_timeout: 3600
   session_stall_timeout: 600
   tool_loop_guardrails:
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ compression:
 auxiliary:
   compression:
     provider: "main"
-    reasoning_effort: "none"
+    reasoning_effort: false
     timeout: 120
     max_concurrency: 1
   # Session names are cosmetic and used to create a second concurrent LLM
diff --git a/platform/hermes/install-profiles.sh b/platform/hermes/install-profiles.sh
index dafab5e..ff6c326 100755
--- a/platform/hermes/install-profiles.sh
+++ b/platform/hermes/install-profiles.sh
@@ -31,7 +31,9 @@ create_profile() {
   # tuning. Enforce them on old profiles as well as newly cloned profiles.
   docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config set model.max_tokens "$max_tokens"
   docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config set agent.max_turns 64
-  docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config set agent.reasoning_effort none
+  # Current Hermes CLI parses the bare word `none` as YAML null. Boolean false
+  # is the supported, unambiguous representation for disabled reasoning.
+  docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config set --force agent.reasoning_effort false
   docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config set display.show_reasoning false
   docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config set auxiliary.title_generation.enabled false
   docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config set web.search_backend keenable
@@ -58,7 +60,7 @@ create_profile() {
   # compressor was removed after it lost exact technical state in benchmarks.
   docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config unset auxiliary.compression || true
   docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config set auxiliary.compression.provider main
-  docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config set auxiliary.compression.reasoning_effort none
+  docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config set --force auxiliary.compression.reasoning_effort false
   docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config set auxiliary.compression.timeout 120
   docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config set auxiliary.compression.max_concurrency 1
   docker exec "$HERMES_CONTAINER" hermes -p "$name" config set platform_toolsets.cli \